Well…it happened this morning. Nathan James Whitham joined the world, weighing in at a healthy 7lbs, 13oz. Kim and I are officially grandmas together.
Our kids, Nathan’s parents, have asked that we not post pictures on social media, but trust me. He’s perfect. He has sweet little cheeks and his mouth was “going” within minutes of his birth. Yep! That’s a Whitham boy for ya! It won’t be long before their food budget has doubled just to feed him. (Fun side note: If you’ve purchased Kim’s latest book, Bridge of Gold, you’ll see in the dedication that she included some true stories of Steven and Kayla. One of them is that, after making his first grocery shopping run for himself, Steven called to apologize for how much food he ate.)
Which leads into why Nathan James’ nickname is CJ. It’s food related.
My last name is Whitham. Not Whitman or Wittum or any of the other ways people have mispronounced or misprinted it. It was quite an adjustment for a girl who grew up as a Smith. One of the ways we try–TRY–to get people to understand that it’s not Whitman is to say, “It’s sortof like With Ham.” Really, it’s pronounced WIT-um, but whatever. At least we can get our legal documents in the right name.
Anyway, months before we knew whether Baby Whitham was a girl or a boy, we had a family text string that was suggesting names. My husband mentioned something about a new generation having to deal with a mispronounced/misspelled name, and suddenly we were off on cheese names because they went with ham.
Brie. Monty Rey. Grey Ted. Rick Otto. You get the idea.
I’m betting many of you have already figured out CJ, but just in case, the big winner was Colby Jack. And then to have his delivery scheduled on National Cheese Day? Way too funny! We told Steven and Kayla it wasn’t too late to change the baby’s name.
Really, it’s only Kim’s husband who calls the baby CJ, claiming it as his grandpa privilege. And to reinforce it, he brought a brick of Colby Jack cheese to the hospital this morning.
I’m pretty sure that will make it into a book someday, too.